Last but not least, the park got a big new sign that reflects their Cedar Fair ownership:

It's pretty nice - but generally speaking it's soooo Cedar Fair. The design/shape on the top part of the sign was used on all the entrance signs at Kings Dominion. Perhaps that's what they're going to use for all the former Paramount Parks?

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Rollercoasterfreak has some new photos of the deconstruction of Geauga Lake. As you can see above, they're ripping out bricks and such from around the fountain by the entrance. Could this mean the area is going to be razed soon?

Sunday, November 25, 2007

1996 was a big year for Darien Lake amusement park. The $10 million expansion the park saw for the 1996 season was part of former owner, Premier Parks, tendency to spend huge amounts on its parks all at once.

And look Michael Bolton is on the cover of the press kit! He totally makes me star struck ... snicker.

So $10 million bought the park the Nightmare indoor coaster, an entire new children's area in the park, changes to the park's concert venue, and Hook's Lagoon, a water playhouse.

Here's the park facts section. All day admission was $18 and a season pass was $30 - what a steal! Now admission is $35 and a season pass is still a total steal at $45.

A specific breakdown of the new attractions for 1996. I'm noticing that they say that Nightmare went 60 m.p.h. Uhh, okay, sure. Nightmare was a Schwarzkopf Jet Star, like this:

... and according to rcdb.com Jet Star's hit a blazing speed of 31 m.p.h. I think that doubling your ride's max speed in press stuff is a bit much, no?

Anyway - here's the actual press release for the new stuff as well. You can read it if you like. Poor Geauga Lake's logo is on there too.

And to finish things off, here's the park map from that year. A lot has changed, I mean the kids area they had is now the waterpark, no Superman, no Mind Eraser, etc.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Adventureland has announced "Adventure Island" for 2008. Replacing the current circus tent, the attraction will be a water play area - of sorts.

It sounds like they're adding a water play structure like that which can be found in most water parks, along with some other play pools, support buildings, a lounge chair area, all contained in 1.5 acres.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Well they're certainly not keeping much room to expand Wildwater Kingdom. I had no idea the park owned some of the parcels in the area that are so huge - like that 150 acres beyond the Wildwater Kingdom parking lot.

The Republican ran an article yesterday that details some of Six Flags New England's plans for their new Dark Knight roller coaster for 2008.

The ride is going through approval process and so some details of the ride are leaking out.

The 12,245 sq. ft., 65 ft. tall building containing the ride will be placed in the spot of the former stunt show arena in the park's D.C. Comics area.

As for the outside of the building, here's what it is described as:

"The plans also state that the exterior of the building will be designed to appear like smaller city buildings, mimicking the fictional Gotham City of Batman fame. The drawings on file in the Planning and Community Development office show Gotham City Hall, Gotham Police, and the Wayne Industries tower. A billboard proclaims "Harvey Dent for Mayor," which references Gotham's new district attorney."

Friday, November 16, 2007

I wish that I was able to jet down to Florida to provide coverage of my own, alas, no cash for that. Instead, I'd like to at least provide some links I've come across that have good coverage going on.

Coastercrew has a ton of photos as well as podcasts from the show. There's lot of high quality photos of things like California's Great America's new wooden coaster, X's new trains, the model of the Huss Kong ride, and tons more - but you'll have to sift through the gallery to find those gems.

Screamscape is also visiting the event, and reporting their photos and findings as well. They're set up is more straight forward with descriptions of what they've uncovered.

The Sun News has a blog going, titled A Whole New Whirled, that's covering the event as well - and they do have a focus on items related to the new Hard Rock Park.

Thorpe Park, outside London, England, has submitted plans for a new roller coaster for their 2009 season.

It looks like a GerstlauerEurofighter, themed pretty well, with an unusually large loading station building that may contain some sort of show or pre-show even - and some of the coaster track in there as well.

Here's the general plan for the ride. You can see how huge the loading building is compared to the ride and such - and there's a good sized outdoor queue as well. The ride has a vertical lift and a couple inversions at least.

Here are some views of the station exteriors so you can get a grip on the ride's designed theming:

The oversized gears by the lift is totally Mystery Mine-ish - but still, it's a cool design in my book. Plus the Eurofighters looks fun regardless of theme and such.

A group of individuals have some big plans for some land in between Tuscon and Phoenix, in Arizona. They want to build the Decades Music Theme Park in that spot, and have even gone to the extent of creating a website to gather support.

That's where I found this, a rough concept for the park:

The theme park would have a Main Street area, and lands themed to the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s in the first phase of the park to open.

Side note: why do new parks still try to have "phase 1 and phase 2" when so often the 2nd one is never built? Anyway, the whole place would be music themed, not unlike Hard Rock Park which is being built in Myrtle Beach. (Another note, Hard Rock Park officials are already scouting locations in CA for a 2ndthemer)

I guess the developers needs some changes made to Arizona state legislation (create park specific sales tax to finance bonds to raise cash) to move forward with their project.

You can check out their site here to learn more, and even see ways to help support the park's progress.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The picture above speaks for itself, I think. The 2nd little Disney Park in France is finally starting to shape up. Those are new buildings that went up as part of the placemaking project going on at the park in the front of the photo.

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